[survey] Strings - what's your preference... 9's, 10's, 11's or beyond

This may depend more on what kind of music you might like to play. My son like 9's, I like 10's and 11's, mostly the latter. At any rate the question is:

What string diameter do you like or use most often on your guitar(s)?

- 9's

- 10's

- 11's

- heavier than 11's

...and, why?



Best,
Ian
P.S. d'Addario brand seems to work for me

Dean Markley Blue Steel mediums. I like them. A lot.

I wondered how long it would be before this question surfaced.
This thread may get as knarly as my "how many pups do you need?" question.

Over the years I've used a lot of different strings but I'll focus on recent history. I go through periods of relapse where I play very little or not at all. Not a conscious decision usually, just life's urgencies sapping away the will to rock! But the past few years, it's been mostly arthritis in the hands that has cooled the music.

That is until last summer when I got interested again after having bought guitar number 6 from my son's guitar music teacher--a Telecaster clone, Vintage brand. It was strung with 9's which I can't ever remember using before. Normally it'd be 10's or 11's. Well, I found them so easy to play that, together with the new guitar, they ignited the interest (and the GAS!) which has resulted in buying 8 more guitars in the last 12 months!

ELECTRIC GUITARS
I went nuts with 9's and restrung all the electrics with D'Addario Super Light Gauge EXL120 (.009 .011 .016 .024 .032 .042). I'm calming down a bit now and re-assessing things. I still use these 9's on several guitars but I find that on the Epiphone Les Paul and the recently acquired Vantage VS600 my rhythm playing style better suits D'Addario Super Light Top/Reg Bottom EXL125 (.009 .011 .016 .026 .036 .046)...a very nice mix.

To make things even more interesting the guy in the local music store recommended I try D'Addario Pure Nickel EPN120 Super Light 9's on my Tele on the next string change for a more authentic "vintage" sound. He was right! Beautiful and mellow, highly recommended for Tele's and Danelectro's!

ACOUSTIC GUITARS
My Ovation Elite has Martin Extra Light's 80/20 Bronze (.010 - .047). Both the Ovation '83 Collectors Series and the El Degas 'Dove' both have D'Addario Phosphor Bronze EJ26 Custom Lights (.011 - .052).

Finally, the Goya G10 classical has D'Addario Classical Nylon EJ27N silver plated wound (.028 .032 .040 .029 .035 .043)
Dunno which is worse, finding the money to buy the guitar or, finding the money to keep 'em all strung!

I usually use D'Addario XL nickel wound .010/.046's for most of my hardtails. I can get these in the EXL110-3D triple packs for £12, cheap as chips !

All my guitars fitted with trems (but not Floyds) use Fender .010 gauge Super Bullets.

I also like using Rotosound Yellows because they come with an extra 1st string. (Yes I'm a cheapskate, I am half Scottish ! )

Other than that, I have an old Satellite LP copy with a knackered truss rod nut (it fell off!). This was set up 3 years ago as a slide guitar and fitted with what I think are Ernie Ball .012/.056 gauge Not Even Slinky's. I still haven't learnt how to play the thing yet!

Last year I bought my Hohner Tele 12 string and fitted it with D'Addario XL EXL150 .010/.046 Regular Light's. I like these, they have a nice even ring to them. This only gets light use so they're still in good condition.

I've recently restrung my crappy old classical guitar with some D'Addario Pro-Arte EJ46 Hard Tension strings. These sound great now they have settled down, but at a price of £10 it gave me a right pain in the wallet.

I feel your pain on the string buying front Barry, we should get reward points or a loyalty card for buying them. I've just worked out that I have about 180 strings total , imagine the scrap value .

DAN.

All things being equal (and they are not), light gauge strings are easier to play in that when tuned to pitch they have less tension than heavy gauge strings. All things being equal (and they are not), heavy gauge strings sound better and also allow for a lower action (counter-intuitive I know, but true).

Guitar scale length has an affect on ease of play as well. Shorter scale guitars have less string tension than longer scale guitars using the same strings and tuned to the same pitch.

Normally, some compromise is in order - heavier gauge strings on your short scale and lighter on your long scale guitars.

That being said, I have experimented a lot and ended up using Elixir nano web .010s for all of my electric guitars. They're good and bright, last fairly long, and do not get crusty like non-coated strings. I have lots of guitars that don't get played on a regular basis. If I re-string one of these with non-coated strings, play it for a day or two, put it back in the case, then get it out again months or years later, the strings are crusty. And my skin is not very acidic (my bridges don't corrode). The coated strings allow me to store guitars for a long time and get them out from time to time and they always feel like they have new strings on them.

My guitar instructor insists that strats sound better with .011s. SRV used .012s and .013s - but he was constantly injuring his fingertips and super-gluing them back together.

As a bassist, I hardly ever replace my strings and don't even know what gauge the majority of them are. I think my one electric guitar is strung with .009s (based on the strings the guy gave me with it), and I believe my acoustic has .011s, but those are both guesses.

Hello Ian,

Firstly, I've moved this topic since it really isn't about technical issues and is more suitable as a general discussion.

Anyway, that said, good idea for posing this question/poll, very interesting!

Personally, I tend to use Ernie Balls' Super Slinky No. 9's for all my electric guitars - easy on the fingers! My acoustic (LAG electro-acoustic) wears Martin's Extra light strings every time, but I have also been known to use electric strings on it as well! I like the feel of the Slinky's and even though I don't play all of my guitars all that often, they seem to stay nice and bright and don't go manky like some other brands do if they haven't been used for a while.

I'm also usually low on GAS Tokens, so cost plays a major part too. I can buy a pack of three sets of the Ernie Ball strings for around about £10 and three sets of the Martin's for under a tenner!

I shipped a set of the Slinky's out to John (Corsair) last year... I will let him give you his opinion of them though because I know he uses strings that are more akin to bridge cables!

Polly :queen: :flower:

Hi all,

I stick to Ernie Ball.
Super Slinky or Hybrid Slinky.
Suits me best.

H.

DuoFuzz wrote:...I've just worked out that I have about 180 strings total , imagine the scrap value

I'd never stopped to add 'em up...separately like that!
Strewth!

...we should get reward points or a loyalty card for buying them.

Ya know...therein lies an idea!
Oh Polly...got any connections? Um, and would they ship to the colonies?

Pollyanna wrote:I shipped a set of the Slinky's out to John (Corsair) last year... I will let him give you his opinion of them though because I know he uses strings that are more akin to bridge cables!

Very true, and welcome so they were, as at the time I lived a very long way from anywhere and the guitar Polly had sent over had been dismantled and I had no spare strings.

They are a lot light for my style and preference as over the years my string gauges have got heavier and heavier; I started just making up sets with a really heavy bottom 3 and light top 3 as i fancied myself as a lead player at the time but also liked hammering down on the old power chords ... a lot... and I had found that the fatter the strings, the fatter the tone... broadly speaking!
But I was doing a fair amount of acoustic work, too, and I liked the heavier strings for that and as a result, my fingers were hardened enough, and strong enough, to just buy an off-the-shelf set of heavies - normally 12-56s - for the Vantage, which was, and still is, my main stage instrument.
I've since "discovered" the Dean Markley Blue Steel strings and I really like them - nice and bright and very long lived before starting to lose tone and volume, the down side being that the harder steel has a tendency to chew away at the frets a little more than ordinary strings.
So, putting Pollys' Slinkies on my Spectrum GT was something of a revelation as I found I couldn't play in the manner to which I had become accustomed; my left hand technique has developed for big strings and it took a long while until I could grab chords without bending them to buggery and they came off just as soon as I got a set of DM's sent down to Milton from Auckland!

Another corollary of the light/heavy string debate is the fact that on my Bendmaster equipped guitars, light strings make for a very wobbly trem - I would up putting 5 springs on and winding the claw screw in a very long way to get any sembalnce of stability! - , whereas the heavies tend not to suffer unintentional vibrato anywhere near as much!

I, too, am tempted by the Elixer nanowebs, and will get a set when I need to set up a guitar again to see what they're like...

Hey John, glad to hear that yer OK!
I woke up this morning to the news that an earthquake off New Zealand had triggered a tsunami that was heading towards you!

First thing I thought of was that spectacular doggie robe of yours getting wet...and um, you too of course.
Happy to see yer still kicking!
Rock on, you soggy Mats player you!

Ahh, mate; 'twas only a little one - 7.2 on the Richter Scale - and centred in Dusky Sound in Fiordland, so we felt nothing up here in Gisborne!!

Thanks fer the concern, tho!!

Hi Polly - Thanks!! The only issue I have with D'Addario is that they lose volume and go manky more quickly than some others.

John, Barry: Yeah, I heard about the quake on the CBC news bright and early this AM... good to hear all is well John. Just as they said the Tsunami warning was cancelled, the radio dude mentioned that the South Island sees 10,000 - 15,000 minor quakes per annum. Per annum...Is that right?

We're sitting on CDN shield, seismically boring..but the mossies do their best to shake things up.

Now back to your regular programming.

anaerobe wrote:the radio dude mentioned that the South Island sees 10,000 - 15,000 minor quakes per annum. Per annum...Is that right?

Yep; sure is; NZ sits on the join between the Australian and Pacific plates - the Southern Alps mark that line in the South Island, and it passes through Wellington, the capital where all the pollies sit and plot to make our lives a living misery...

NZ is known locally as "the Shaky Isles"; every now and again you get a real good 'un and we must be about due as the last one that was damaging to life and property in any major fashion was in the '30s!!

Glad you are OK Bro .... still, makes for an interesting life.

As a non gigging musican (at the moment), I am not so particular about whose brand of twisted wire I use. I tend to use 10's as a rule but as I have got older ( and poorer strangley enough (kids etc) ) I have become more and more cynical. Apart from string guage combinations, isnt this a bit like wine tasting? One mans meat etc? Kings new clothes?

I agree with Johns comments about the Bendmaster and odd tuning issues. However, with my current set up on the Genesis II, only one string regularly goes out of tune when I use the trem. I then tune it up again , only to find the next time I use the trem it has gone up a pitch. Start again ! Yet I dont have the same problem on the Dimension.

Could be a sticking issue!

corsair wrote:Another corollary of the light/heavy string debate is the fact that on my Bendmaster equipped guitars, light strings make for a very wobbly trem - I would up putting 5 springs on and winding the claw screw in a very long way to get any sembalnce of stability! - , whereas the heavies tend not to suffer unintentional vibrato anywhere near as much!

With any fulcrum tremolo (Floyd included), the tremolo will pull flat when you bend strings. So double-stop bends sound crappy on the floaters (the non-bent string goes flat). For floating fulcrum tremolos, if you don't have the bridge perfectly leveled (with the strings, not the body), then tuning stability is lost.

The fix for tuning stability is to block the tremolo so that it cannot be used to pull the strings sharp. There are various ways to accomplish this either buy buying some extra hardware, using a block of wood, etc. I have found that you can use a coin with a couple of holes drilled in it and a couple of very short wood screws. You screw the coin into the guitar underneath the springs so that the bridge is fixed hard against the coin. I have used the Tremsetter - and it works pretty well - but do you really NEED to pull your strings sharp (do you really need a floater)?

The fix for double-stop bends going flat is to put lots of springs on the claw and screw the claw down tight. This increases the tension on the tremolo, but solves the problem.

an old one i've just spotted...


11's (roto's) for electric, though if it comes with 10's and it's got one of them wobbly bridges, i tend to keep with the 10's. roto's again. 9's and (god forbid) 8's, are for the ladies, i believe..

i used to take the p*** out of a mate of mine (r.i.p.) who used lighter strings, by calling them gayboy strings... not that there's anything wrong with being gay, or a woman, obviously!

acoustic-wise it's 13's (roto jumbo kings).

I use GHS Boomers 9's. I know that putting 9's on a Rainbow, Prestige or Session is sacrilege but that is what I have played with for 20+ years. I was a teenager during the hair metal years, what do you expect me to use?

9's!

all kidding aside.. i only go heavier cos i'm a bit heavy handed and i tend to bend lighter guages out of tune.

i'm mainly a rhythm player, too..

Since this was first posted (uh, seven months ago)... I have begun to play around with strings. Currently I like the set of Ernie Ball skinny-top (10, 13, 17) -heavy bottom (30, 42, 52) strings that I have on the Vantage "Entertainar" VE 550.

I haven't posted much at all for a couple months, nice to be back.

Ian

Hi Ian, wondered where you got to. Good to see you again.

Considering I bend bass strings without meaning to, I should probably get heavier strings on my guitar.

Thanks Barry! My gear acquistion has been modulated to just one new axe ('82 Aria Pro II Deluxe-V) in the last while. I've spent a lot of time actually torturing the strings.

on a fender scale i like 10s........they feel a l'il heavier on an LP. i may try 9s on my gibby.........10s are ok on my prestige, tho'. 10s just feel "normal" & "right"

Based on Corsair's recommendation I just tried some Dean Markley 10s on my Thunder1. I got the eliptical wound version though (Helix) and must say they feel and sound very good.

guess I need to chime in on this one too ...

I put Ernie Ball 10-46 on all my electrics. Don't use trems, so that doesn't factor in. All my electrics with trems are adjusted to be flushmount, or are blocked.

On acoustics I go Ernie Ball Phosphor bronze 12-54. I don't play acoustic much, but when I do I like it to be a bit of a workout.

*UPDATED* I like 9's on my floating trem guitars and 10's on fixed bridge guitars. I am more of a finesse player at heart and have just recently switched to 10's on some guitars. My standard rhythm string is the GHS Boomer, but I bought several cases of Dean Markley Blue Steel both 9 and 10 gauge earlier this year (loved them in the early 1990's but couldn't afford them). I used to use special light where the G, B and high E were like 8 gauge back in the 80's.

I have 12s on my Thunder IT. For massive twang! They don't feel that heavy. Had 13-56 on a 1963 Hofner Senator and Peavey Rockingham I used to have.

Wow! Way to resurrect an old thread! 7 years. A new record maybe? 

The Thunder is a G-scale guitar so heavier gauge strings will work well. Dunno about 13's though...ouch!

Resurrecting zombie thread. I use 10s on electric, 13 on acoustic. I exclusively use Elixir Poywebs. They are more expensive but well worth it. I tend to find most strings lose their tone within a month, even if the guitar isn't played much. I have a Vintage Sg clone that's had the same strings on for over 4 years and they still sound like I put them on this morning. Saw a youtube video of a guy who's had the same strings on his Strat for 13 years, still sound new.